Taopix Expands U.S. Operations for American Commercial Printing Market
SAN DIEGO, CA—August 29, 2011—Taopix Ltd. announced the expansion of the sales and support structure for its U.S. business. Technical support for the company’s growing customer base will now be provided by the newly established Taopix USA team based in San Diego, CA. And sales reach will now increase via an expanded network of dealer channels and a coast-to-coast direct sales force.
The entire U.S. operation will be headed up by Gadi Kovarsky (vice president, Americas). Taopix Photobook is an end-to-end platform that enables commercial printers and photo labs to offer digital photo merchandise products to their client bases.
Taopix Photobook is not just a photo book production solution. The system allows for users to also profit from production of digital scrap books, proof books, trader cards, calendars, greeting cards, postcards, posters, photographic prints, T-Shirts, mouse mats and self-published books. Taopix users benefit from exclusive control over the business model including branding, pricing, templates, and client page design, eliminating the need to pay for additional services.
Taopix also promotes different ‘go to market’ strategies that allow customers to target different markets and tailor their products accordingly. The flexibility of the platform means that personalized photo products can be sold—via download or on CD—direct to the consumer, as well as indirectly via a ‘white label’ service to partners who have ready-made customer bases to sell to.
History of Rapid Growth
Taopix Photobook, which was originally developed in 2006 for the British marketplace, quickly gained recognition as both a reliable and trusted solution throughout the European graphic arts markets. The company opened its first international office in Singapore in June 2009, headed by Richard Watson, President (Asia), which was quickly followed by the opening of founding sales offices worldwide. Today, a global network of 30 distributors has been established to meet the demand for sales and support of the product globally. Taopix now employs 28 members of staff worldwide, the backbone of which is a strong development team, supported by experienced technical personnel in the UK, Asia and now the USA.
Taopix Quote
“According to InfoTrends research, while many markets in the digital imaging space are approaching maturation, the photo merchandise market will attain substantial growth, reaching $2.2 billion in revenues by 2014. As traditional photo print volumes and revenues decline, generating revenue from photo merchandise is certainly one way most vendors in the consumer photo market can increase sales. Consumers are taking more photos than ever before and still want to do creative things with them, rather than just view them on a PC screen or make traditional prints. Photo merchandise opens up that creative avenue, giving consumers a variety of unique options for output.” notes James Gray, CEO and Founder, Taopix.
Taopix Photobook Modules
The suite is devised of three main modules:
• Taopix Designer: Critical to success is the ability of end-users to easily create a photo book. The design module allows Print Service Providers to create a fully customized and branded customer interface which can be delivered as a download and/or on disk. The drag and drop software encourages customers to create any photo gift product from their Mac or PC anywhere in the world. The admin interface enables features to be turned on and off per application or product, allowing beginners and professionals alike to confidently produce memorable keepsakes.
• Taopix Web: This shopping module allows customers to easily choose and pay for their digital creations. Users are provided with a shopping basket solution which offers a flexible pricing engine with tax, shipping, voucher, discount, and per-page pricing options. It also allows customers to choose preferred payment methods (credit card, account, cheque, PayPal…). Once payment has been made, Taopix Web encrypts the customer file and uploads it securely to the user’s server to be delivered to the production workflow as a print-ready PDF, JPEG, or TIFF.
• Taopix Production: Taopix Production allows printers and pro labs to manage their whole photo book business within one application. Taopix will provide notification of orders and can track job progress from the initial receipt of the customer file and payment confirmation, to printing the final product. Print-ready files are sent to the output device with a fully customizable job tickets, including a barcode for tracking and managing each job. With Taopix Production, you can even track jobs that require multiple output devices and follow the complete production process.
Availability
Taopix Photobook is now available through the company’s network of worldwide distribution channels.
About Taopix
Taopix Ltd. is a privately-funded software development company established in 2007 in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. The company has international offices in Singapore and the United States of America. For Taopix, the primary focus is to provide a superior photo book platform to digital printers and professional photo labs. Its mission is to provide a quality, robust product supported by the development of long term channel/end user partnerships; high growth through volume photo book sales; an outstanding commitment to post-sales support, and, of course, the desire to be the world’s number one photo book solution. A global network of 30 distributors, operating in over 50 countries, has been established to meet the demand for sales and support of the product.
Source: Taopix.